Robben Ford Discussion

kirk95

Here's my take on Russell Ferrante's classic tune that was made famous by our main man. What a killer tune to play on! Tons of fun!

I wish Robben would bring this one back into the live rotation.

Please check it out!

Download here - Kirk95' s Revelation:

http://www.dhenderson.com/Clips.htm
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juspasinby2003 · Senior Member Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 255

Very, very nice work, Dave! Your picking dynamics especially were very effective.

Time 3:54 - 4:00, whatever you call those things (16ths cascading downward), they were very nicely executed. 2:28 - 2:32 also was a great, original line leading to the diminished run.

Only thing I would change is to make the guitar sound bigger (turn your amp up to let it breathe). It just seemed a little confined (compressed) in the mix. You might try setting the 2290 for an automatic double tracking effect (easy on the modulation and the mix). That can make a ukelele sound big but still natural.

You might also try playing it a little "greasier" with occasional long slides down the neck to end a phrase. It tends to clear the palate between lines, and taking your hand out of position like that can keep it relaxed and ready to begin a new idea or motif. It might add something or it might not - worth investigating, though.

Molto Bravo!

Bluelobster · Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 7:51 am Post subject: Revelation

Hi Kirk , great cover . I agree with JustPass , Louder , louder , and the flying hand , but frankly it is just for fun , great job and killer tone.

Did you made the backing track ? who is the backing track ?

kirk95 · Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 9:37 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the positive feedback!

BTW, you can now download the backing track from the same page. Now you guys can take a shot at this one. Some very nice harmonic twists in Revelation which make it a blast to improvise on...plus if you really want you can just forget the changes and play blues through almost the whole thing.

Anyway have some fun with this one...I sure did!

Very Happy

Thanks for listening! Wink

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edpesco · Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 12:16 pm Post subject:

Aeolian · Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 7:45 pm Post subject:

Wow Captain! Great stuff. What is "fun" for some, is torture for others Laughing

Here's my uneducated, playing the blues, what the $#&% are those chords? stab at it.
http://stevekirbymusic.com/Musicdownloads/AeolianRevelationMix.mp3

Gotta go dig out the Beyond The Blues tape and figure out what those blasted "changes" are

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Bill Morgan · Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 9:37 pm Post subject:

kirk95 · Posted: Sun May 09, 2004 6:59 am Post subject:

Sounds like a Fuchs to me. Wink

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juspasinby2003 · Senior Member Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 255

frank0936 · Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 8:45 am Post subject: revelation

I have always loved Robben's version of that tune. Both of you did great takes on it, too. I enjoyed listening to them both. Now, d@#$%!!, I have to go practice some more!

Really nice guys,
Frank
PS. On one of Robeen's videos, he said he didn't know the changes to that tune when he recorded it!

Aeolian · Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 10:39 am Post subject:

Bill, Harmony Meteor and Silvertone 2-12 just like the picture Laughing

No really, it's the Fuchs and homemade 2-12 that are pictured in the "speakers" thread. The guitar is my trusty mid 80's 335 (don't know the exact vintage but I like it anyway). It has big frets and Tusq saddles. The guy who did the work works on lots of folks guitars around here and I'm told that my 335 responds similarly to Chris Cain's, so I can't blame the guitar Confused

I discovered an interesting miking technique at the Kimock show. He's a real sound freak so I figured it was worth a try here. He puts the 57 off axis so that it's almost parallel to the cone coming in from the edge, kind of pointed at the dust cap. Then there was a LD condensor straight on. Following Harvey Gerst's 3:1 rule against phase cancellation, I pulled the condensor back about 3 feet to get a more integrated sound off the cabinet. There is no eq or compression on anything. The SM57 track has some reverb and the condensor track has some slap (116ms of course Smile

). The two tracks blended together really nicely.

I think that the "compression" is my own bad technique. This is done with the bridge pickup and muting the strings to "thicken" the sound back up. Unfortunatelly I'm not used to playing with headphones on and didn't do a very good job of controlling this so that some of the notes could open up and breathe. It would be interesting to find out how Robben listens to his guitar while recording. Does he do the one can off the ear thing? Does he listen to his rig through the monitor mix?

JPB, the two note thing is just a standard blues riff to give me a moment to listen to where the song was going. I knew that there is a C dom to B dom thing in the verse but I have absolutely no idea what is happening in the B part. The other crutch is playing fast. Wrong notes don't sound as wrong if you don't have to listen to them too long Shocked

The other night some guy came up to me and asked "what's the first thing you think about when starting a solo" and I replied "slow down". Laughing

Kirk said he'd give me a chart so it would be great to try and play something that belongs.

Which brings me to an interesting story about the comment in the Blues and Beyond tape about not knowing the changes. Awhile back I found myself on stage with Myron Dove and Noel Coltura and they wanted to play this song. Realizing that Noel would play the head I sheepishly had to admit that I could play the head but didn't know the chords. Myron looked at me and asked how I could play it without knowing the chords, and I said that Robben didn't know them either when he did it. Myron laughed, then gave me the 'eye' and said that that was just a story, and assued me that Robben knew the changes. I think maybe Robben didn't work out voicings and substitutions as if he were going to play comps but that he knew where the song was going. Maybe it was juat a matter of having such a large musical vocabulary that he recognized the basic chords and how the tone centers moved without formally going through the chart. But listening to the record, it's obvious he knew where he was and what he was doing. Robben advocates simplification and makes it sound like he's just playing by ear, but as Kirk and others have pointed out, he did his homework and knows exactly what he is doing even if he didn't come at it from a cllinical appoach.

Now let's hear some more. There are so many folks here with so many different approaches, it's great to share different takes. I know I've got a lot to learn from Kirk's version. I want to steal from everyone Laughing

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LongIslandRod · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 8:28 am Post subject:

Kirk and Aeolian both of you sound great, I enjoyed listening. Very inspirational I hope to do a version too for your listening pleasure as soon as time permits. Thanks for making the backing track available Kirk.

What type of recording equipment are you guys using?

LI Rod

Aeolian · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 10:01 am Post subject:

kirk95 · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 11:43 am Post subject:

kirk95 · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 12:22 pm Post subject:

More Revelation Stuff:
Right click and choose "save as" to download the files.

The original midi file:
http://www.dhenderson.com/MP3/DH%20Clips/4_REVELA.MID

The Chord Changes - this is a pdf file.
http://www.dhenderson.com/MP3/DH%20Clips/Revelation.pdf

To read pdf files you need a copy of the acrobat reader - download here.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

After looking at the changes on this chart, I was playing from memory on my clip, there are a lot more changes to play on. I blues scaled my way through a lot of the tune..which is what Robben does too. The changes I made were:

on the B7 - I played a B7 arpeggio and also played a B H/W Diminished

on the E-7 Eb7 D-7 Db7 C- these are II V7s with tritone subs resolving to C major.

So for E-7 A7 D-7 G7 C you can sub E-7 Eb7 D-7 Db7 C.....

So I was thinking:
E-7 - E-7 arpeggio or G or major scale
Eb7 - really didn't play this chord just stayed with the E-7 ideas - I think Robben talks about this chord and voicing in his video
D-7 - D-7 arpeggio or D dorian
Db7 - this chord I made an effort to emphasize - Db Lydian b7 (Ab melodic minor) or ....E/Db
C - C lydian or Cmaj7 arpeggio

There is also a I IV II V turnaround (on cue) - this is what I was playing/ thinking there: G7/D E7b9 A-7 C/D.

Here I am playing the G blues scale except on the E7b9 where I am thinking E alt or F melodic minor.

The rest of the tune I am rocking from G blues to G mixo/ G7 arpeggio....that's it. All those fast 16th note runs/ licks are just decending triads in G dorian...well some end up going chromatic ;-)....

I need to try another take now and try to hit more of these changes. Like I said before this is killer tune to play on because it is both complex and simple at the same time. You can just play the blues or try and make some of the changes or all of the changes.......
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